Current mobile multi-player games require a communication network consisting of a single bidirectional wireless air interface channel per player, all operating concurrently, thereby creating an environment of inefficient bandwidth utilization. Essentially, multi-player games are played on a massive wireless “conference call”. This architecture consumes wireless network resources and is a costly implementation of multi-player gaming in a wireless environment.
A feature of multicast service in a wireless communication network is that multiple end users share a single wireless air interface channel, logical or physical, which extends from the base station radio transmitter in the wireless communication network to their wireless end user devices, which single wireless air interface channel comprises the forward path that carries the multicast multi-media content. A plurality of end user devices thereby concurrently receives the multi-media content on the same channel. However, this delivered multi-media content, information, or data (collectively termed “content” or “multi-media content” herein) is static and is simply a replica of the source content, less any transmission or coding errors. The wirelessly multicast source content is immutable and does not have end user interaction or feedback.
New wireless multi-media content delivery architectures, such as MediaFLO (“Media ForwardLinkOnly”) and DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld), function by using a broadcast architecture in the forward path to produce a pseudo-multicast delivery and concurrently disseminate multi-media content to a plurality of wireless end user devices on a single air interface channel. In these architectures (also termed “multicast” herein), a unidirectional multi-media wireless broadcast network transmits multi-media content to selected authorized wireless end user devices in a time concurrent fashion. However, there is no interconnection, interaction, or feedback between the end users and their associated end user devices with this multicasted multi-media content stream. The forward path content is completely and totally static in its nature. The delivered multi-media content is essentially no different than UHF or VHF broadcasted television, other than it can be received on small portable digital devices.
The MediaFLO and DVB-H multi-media wireless architectures, therefore, are static in their user interface, since there is no interactivity or feedback between delivered multi-media content and the end user. The multicasted content is invariant or immutable in its extent. That is, whatever is delivered to the wireless network for transmission to the end user population is delivered as an exact replica, untouched and unmodified from its original form. This is a distinct and inherent limitation of the present wireless multicasting art (even though multicasting is efficient and targeted).
The present wireless multicasting art does not enable or permit end users, via their associated end user devices, to modify the multi-media content carried on the forward path in any manner. Still, there are numerous applications wherein the ability to modify the forward path multicast content based on end user (subscriber) input or actions would be highly desired. An example of such an application is multi-player gaming, where a plurality of participants is concurrently active in a gaming environment. Each player needs to have the ability to receive content indicative of the accumulated moves of the players while also having the ability to transmit private communications to the gaming site and receive private communications from the gaming site. For example, in a card game environment such as blackjack, all players concurrently view the “face-up” played cards of all the players, while each player receives a private display of their “face-down cards” and must have an ability to transmit confidential instructions to the gaming site regarding their next move and/or wager. Many of the present massive multi-player role-playing games (MMORPG) enable players to form sub-groups, tribes, or armies; as a result, there is a need for members of a particular sub-group to communicate with each other, form alliances, or make moves together, but not necessarily with all the players of the game, and to communicate the collaborative decision back to the game host. There is presently no system in the wireless multicasting technology that can provide this capability. What is needed is a novel adaptation of a wireless multicast network that enables end user interaction and modification of the forward path delivered multimedia content.
Thus, the state of the wireless multicasting art does not enable the capability to dynamically modify the content delivered on the forward path via aggregated feedback or input from at least one of a plurality of end users via their associated end user devices while concurrently providing private two-way communications to each end user device. No system heretofore has envisioned engaging the end user to directly and actively influence the delivered multicasted content.